Motor Mouth: Once-hated car trends now totally in vogue

The new BMW X4 crossover coupe has a lot in common with AMC's 1980 Eagle Wagon.

PHOTO: Handout, Archive/BMW

At the New York Auto Show, it's clear that everything old (and hated) is now new (and loved) again

By David Booth

Originally published: April 17, 2014

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BMW unveiled its X4 at the New York Auto Show this week. It’s a sleek affair, its even-numbered numerical designation indicating that it is a Sports Activity Coupe with a sporty sloping rear roofline as opposed to the odd-numbered X models that are Sports Activity Vehicles (persnickety differentiations obviously the mark of good marketing these days) with more traditional sport-ute profiles. Pedantic alphanumeric concerns aside, I suspect the X4 is going to be a huge success for the Bavarian firm, combining sleek styling, “faux-by-faux” capabilities and BMW’s traditional sporty comportment. BMW Canada is going to sell a boat-load of ‘em. Which has me thinking that …

Were AMC — American Motors Corporation for those scouring their cranium for the long-departed, not-much-lamented automaker’s full name — in business today, it might well be thriving. Oh, to be sure, the Hornet would have gone, as it did in 1977, the way of the Dodo bird, its less than comely looks and wayward handling terrible even in that era. But, on sober reflection, what is a BMW X4 if not a 1980 Eagle Wagon modernized for the masses? SUV-like utility? Check. Just a soupcon of extra ground clearance for that extra butch look? Ditto. And, of course, all-wheel-drive for those convinced they will eventually go “faux roading.” There was even an SX/4 model that emulated the X4’s coupe-like sloping rear roofline.

And, if you think I’m making specious comparisons, consider the following. The X4 and the Eagle are only about an inch apart in wheelbase, less than 60 millimetres different in length (the AMC having the advantage here with greater stowage area) and less than 30-mm different in width. The only dimension in which they radically differ is in height, where the Eagle is decidedly lower, an attribute in my book. So, yes folks, I am contending that we are so smart, so much more evolved than generations past that we have, in effect, engineered the most popular vehicle of this fledgling millennium — crossovers — to emulate one of the least popular vehicles of the ’80s. Ain’t we smart.

The X4, like seemingly every other vehicle on the Jacob K. Javits Convention’s main floor, also features a range of turbocharged engines, the most popular of which will be the 28i’s 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo. Indeed, everywhere you look, automakers — Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW — to name but a few, are looking to small turbocharged engines as the salvation to their quest for parsimonious power. Hell, Jaguar’s stillborn C-X75 hyper hybrid was powered (at least partially) by a 1.6-litre turbo.

BMW’s new X4 is unveiled at the New York International Auto Show., Driving

And what company is most associated with previous attempts at popularizing turbocharged four-bangers? Why, Chrysler in the 1980s. And, while we of the oily cranium may all have a fond place in our memories for Dodge’s little GLHS, for every Shelby-ized turbo’ed Omni, there were 10 Lebaron GTSs with blown head gaskets and wonky gearboxes. Indeed, the original 2.2L version was never designed for turbocharger use. It was just an expediency; slap on an off-the-shelf Garrett T-3 and torque steer your way to performance. So, once again, it appears that the solution to all our 21st century motoring woes is to turn to the example of one of the least fondly-remembered relics of the previous millennium, Chrysler’s Krap-Kan K-cars.

(For all you with fond memories of their Reliants and Aries, I should note that I too actually have fond reminisces of Chrysler’s K-cars; my dad’s “woody” wagon survived 274,000 oft-adventurous klicks, though its little 2.2L four did expire shortly after it was bought by some lead-footed teenager.)

Crossovers and turbocharged engines are hardly the only examples of “revolutionary” automotive technologies and trends that owe their origin to oft-discounted brands/models. The swiveling front headlights that Volkswagen is so proud to bring to its bargain-basement Jetta actually originated with one of the biggest losers in automotive history. Though it was, in fact, popularized by France’s innovative Citroen DS, the first vario-directional headlight was built into the stillborn Tucker 48. Preston Tucker managed to produce just 51 examples of his then high-tech sedan before a combination of politics and SEC fraud investigation saw the factory buried beneath a deluge of legal bills and bad publicity.

2015 Volkswagen Jetta.Handout, Volkswagen

Walking around the Javits Convention Center also reveals that virtually all upscale sedans are now available — some exclusively so — with all-wheel-drive. It’s a little ironic, then, that the most colossal failure in recent luxury segment history was Jaguar’s 2001 X-Type. Codenamed X400, the X-Type was produced exclusively in AWD guise (mainly because it was based on Ford’s Mondeo whose front-wheel-drive platform was considered unacceptable for the luxury segment), which, despite its current popularity, was then considered a technological faux pas. Indeed, back then, only Audi was assiduously peddling AWD to luxury intenders. So unpopular was the X-Type that Jaguar is still reeling (though, it musty be admitted, the gorgeous F-Type is making people finally forgive all of Jag’s past mistakes). Adding to the irony is that sales of Jag’s top-of-the-line XJ sedan were, until very recently, hampered by its lack of all-wheel-drive.

I’m not really sure what all this means. It certainly doesn’t mean that to innovate one must first fail miserably; there are simply too many high-tech modernities in class-leading automobiles to give that any credence. Nor can it even be said past mistakes always lead to future innovation; Ford’s Pinto and the Lada Niva pretty much torpedo that myth. But, at the very least, it does mean that we don’t always recognize the technology of tomorrow when we see it today. Remember that the next time you’re making fun of Tata’s Nano.

New York Auto Show a big venue for Land Rover

It might seem counterintuitive — after all, fewer than 25% of all New Yorkers own personal vehicles and Manhattan traffic is largely dominated by yellow-liveried taxis — but the Big Apple is the largest single metro market for Range Rover and Range Rover Sport in the world. That’s why the New York International Auto Show is often the venue for Land Rover’s most important introductions. Last year, it was 007’s Daniel Craig racing through the streets of Manhattan in the then-new Range Rover Sport. This year, the company took over the USS Intrepid to announce its New Age of Discovery collaboration with Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s vision of suborbital travel for space tourists. And no, Virgin isn’t putting Land Rovers on the moon, but will be using them exclusively at their New Mexico Spaceport America training centre as well as Galactic’s test facility in California’s Mojave Desert.